Category: urban chickens

Touch the Soil News #766 (feature photo – courtesy of FAO) According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0), a division of the United Nations, 800 million people worldwide practice urban agriculture. These urban agriculture efforts account for roughly 15 to 20 percent of the world’s food supply. The FAO sees urban agriculture as reaching far beyond just vegetables to include small animal agriculture (rabbits, goats, sheep, dwarf cattle, pigs, guinea pigs and fish). Urban agriculture includes trees for fruit and fuel wood. Small garden plots can be up to 15 times more productive than rural holdings. The FAO is working to expand the recognition of urban agriculture as an…

Touch the Soil News #386 Rent the Chicken is a newer business model for urban food. Started in 2013 by Jenn Tompkins from Pennsylvania, the model has now been franchised in 36 locations in 23 U.S. States and five (5) Canadian Provinces. Kate Fraser, a new Rent the Chicken franchise holder in Vancouver, Canada rents two hens (with feed and chicken coops) for $425 for six months. Four (4) hens cost $600. At the end of the term, renters can buyout the chickens and coops at $250 for the two-hen option or $350 for the four-hen option. Renting the chickens gets homeowners up to speed quickly. (Logo courtesy of Rent…